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Would England have been as pathetic under Harry Redknapp?

29th June 2014Ok, so we’ve all had some time to reflect on England’s less than brilliant performances on this World Cup stage, so perhaps we can be more objective now?

Firstly let me state that Roy Hodgson and his band of mediocre prima donnas have ruined my summer. No I didn’t expect us to win the World Cup, history shows that only South American teams win tournaments in their own continent, nor did I think we would reach the semi finals, but I did think we would squeeze through the group.

Italy weren’t great, eventually looking the ageing team they are and failing to qualify; Uruguay were a one man team and were easily beaten in the first knock out round and Costa Rica?!! So the Central American side scraped past Greece and are in the Quarter Finals..............England should have been there, where we would have been knocked out by a diving Arjen Robben!
We scored just 2 goals in 270+ minutes of football. With all the attacking talent we had at our disposal, that is pathetic.

Roy changed the set up to accommodate Rooney in the second match, yes he did score, but we’ll never know how we would have fared if Sterling had retained the freedom of the number 10 role rather than being squeezed out to the wing. After all, Rooney did set up the goal for Sturridge with a great cross from the left against Italy.

Sadly Roy didn’t have the guts to change things during the Uruguay match. Gerrard was clearly suffering the mental anguish of the defeat by Chelsea and had a dreadful tournament, could Lampard have been more effective in helping to defend the draw with Uruguay? Once we had equalised a point would have given us a great chance of qualification.

Is Joe Hart really world class? There have been some outstanding goalkeeping performances so far in the tournament, but I don’t remember Hart making any worthwhile save. All the “experts” will say he had no chance with the goals, but look at the Mexican keeper’s performance; he had “no chance” but made the saves to frustrate Brazil.

As a man in his early 60s I measure the rest of my life in World Cups! Even if I stay in great health there may only be 4 or 5 more for me to enjoy! Fortunately being the age I am means I did at least witness England ruling the football world 48 years ago but with Russia and Qatar the next two venues it’s not looking great!

I do wonder how England would have progressed under the potential management team of Harry Redknapp and his implied assistant Brendan Rogers. I think the atmosphere in the camp may have been as close to that created by messrs Robson and Venables from the past and I genuinely think we would have at least survived until the quarter finals.

Roy Hodgson is an honourable, intelligent man with many strings to his bow, but he isn’t the charismatic manager to bring success to our national team. If Brendan Rogers can keep Liverpool in the top 4 this season without Senor Suarez, then the FA should beg him to take over in time for the next big tournament.